***I'd like to thank Randi for inviting me to participate in this event and also thank my beta readers for their invaluable advice and Randi for her editorial assistance. And I'd like to thank Literotica for being here for 24 years. Please look out for the other stories in
this invitational event
. You are sure to enjoy them all.***
It was an unusual sight, given the circumstances: two men and a woman in a small private waiting room at the maternity hospital. They all looked tense, but they were all trying to be as supportive of each other as possible.
Gary, however, was beginning to feel locked out of things. This was strange, because it was his wife who was in the maternity suite, about to give birth. But then, he wasn't the father of the child she was carrying. Having said that, his wife wasn't, technically speaking, the mother of the child she was carrying, either. But because he loved her so much, he could deny her nothing.
Those weird, disjointed thoughts were his way of coping with the stress of waiting. The man and woman who he shared the waiting room with were his brother-in-law, Paul, and Paul's wife, Mary, who was Sandra's sister and his sister-in-law.
18 months earlier, the trio had come to him to ask for his approval of a scheme they had concocted. For several reasons, Mary was unable to take a pregnancy to full term and Sandra had proven herself capable of giving birth as Gary and Sandra had a daughter of 16, who was called Julieta. The question was, could Gary and Sandra help them out by allowing Paul and Mary to make use of Sandra's womb?
At first, Gary had been inclined to refuse. After all, she was now 16 years older, at 37, and at the time of Julieta's birth, the Doctors had warned Sandra that a further pregnancy would be potentially dangerous. They had agreed at the time of the birth that Sandra would have her tubes tied and Gary would have a vasectomy, which they both did.
The trio had proceeded to earnestly plead their case to Gary, citing recent improvements in medical technology and newer birthing techniques. They spoke of Louise Brown, who was the world's first so-called test tube baby, born in North West England in 1978. They iterated and then reiterated all the advances in modern obstetric medicine and In vitro fertilization in the intervening 44 years.
Plus, they pointed out that older pregnancies were now more the norm rather than the exception as they had been when Sandra had given birth to Julieta when Sandra was just 20. They had gradually worn Gary's resistance down until he had agreed to the procedure, even though he still had some concerns and misgivings.
It was all to be undertaken under the guidance of the expert medical staff at the fertility clinic at the River City Polyclinic and Maternity Hospital. Eggs would be harvested from Mary, then the eggs would be subjected to in vitro fertilization with sperm donated by Paul in their laboratory.
Once the egg was fertilized, it would be implanted into Sandra's womb and the baby would be born, but rapidly handed over to the parents of the child, with all legal formalities already dealt with, in as far as was possible.
Put like that, it had all sounded so simple, but throughout the pregnancy, Sandra had been ill on and off and several times. Gary had suggested putting an end to the matter, but the others outvoted him, claiming that the life of their unborn child was sacred. Sacrosanct? Whatever. Even their daughter Julieta had gotten in on the act, gently chiding Gary to 'get with the plan.'
Gary had swallowed his misgivings, and with Julieta staying at a neighbor's house that evening, the three adults were anxiously waiting for the news of the birth.
Eventually, a harassed and tired looking young doctor knocked on the door and entered the room. It was obvious he had bad news. "Folks, the baby girl is alive and doing well, though in an incubator. Unfortunately, the mother did not survive the birth. She died on the operating table. We did our best, but we couldn't do enough for her. I'm so sorry for your loss."
Paul gave an audible sigh of relief and said: "But my daughter, my baby girl is safe and well!"
Mary gasped out: "Paul! That's not appropriate! I have just lost my sister and Gary has just lost his wife!"
Paul shrugged and said: "I'm sorry, but at least my daughter is safe. When can I see her?"
The doctor, a look of disdain on his face, gave him the instructions, begrudgingly.
Before the doctor could finally leave the room and escape the shitstorm he could visualize on the horizon, Gary asked him, quietly and sadly, "When can I see my wife, please?"
The Doctor gently took hold of his arm and led him to meet with his wife for one last time.
She looked remarkably well for a corpse, Gary thought, in shock as he was. When he kissed her forehead, she still felt quite warm.
He staggered back to the waiting room and as soon as he entered it he cried out: "Oh, God! I have to tell Julieta!"
Mary took his hand, and said, "She's with your neighbor, Mrs. Humbolt, isn't she? I'll tell her."
Mary watched in horror as Gary let out a sob and lost consciousness, slumping onto the floor. She buzzed for a nurse and quickly Gary was bundled off to a different and distant part of the hospital.
Simply put, his mental system hadn't been able to cope with the loss of his wife and he had suffered a breakdown.
After 48 hours of what was, in effect, bedrest, he was released from the hospital with instructions to seek CBT therapy as an outpatient.
He decided not to call his brother-in-law for a ride from the hospital. He still smarted from his callous disregard for Sandra's life, as if she had no more meaning to him other than being a baby making machine, and being discardable if no longer necessary.
Gary caught an Uber and tried to call Julieta to let her know that he was on his way home. He made several calls, all of which went unanswered.
When he arrived at the house he had shared with Sandra and Julieta he realized that nobody had been living in it for several days.
He volubly cursed his stupidity. After all, why would a child of 16 be left by herself by the other adults in her life under the circumstances?
He drove his own car to the home shared by Paul and Mary, which was a couple of miles distant.
The scene that greeted him was a scene of domestic bliss that tore through him. There were Mary and Julieta, both cooing over the baby: the baby who had killed his dear beloved wife.
Once again, but this time in silence, he cursed himself. Because he realized that it wasn't the baby's fault. The baby was, if anyone was, the sole true innocent in this whole diabolical mess.
"Oh, hi, Daddy!" Julieta said. "You are out of hospital, yeah?"
"Yes, Julieta, I am out of the hospital. I tried to call you several times but you never answered."
"Sorry, Dad. I must have been busy with my new baby sister. I didn't notice your calls. She's a real beauty, but a bit of a handful, too."
He shrugged as he stood there. Had his daughter, his own flesh and blood just lied to him? He thought that she had, in some way, done exactly that, but he couldn't figure out why she would have done it. Because he felt she had actually ignored his calls, rather than just failed to notice them.
And her baby sister? That was a twist he hadn't seen coming. Technically the baby was her sister, but also, and this made his head swim, technically, the baby was also her niece, even though they came from the same womb. The same, now dead, womb.
Mary must have seen some of the turmoil that was beating on Gary like a particularly evil tropical storm and she hugged him, saying: "I know, Gary, I know. My sister and your wife is gone, and I'd give anything to have her back. But we do have the baby to honor Sandra's memory."
He began to sob uncontrollably, and Mary managed to get him to sit down at the kitchen table, shushing Julieta and asking her to take the baby into another room. Julieta frowned at her father. Maybe she didn't think men should cry?
Mary and Gary spoke for what seemed like hours to him. She apologized for Paul's absence, but a business deal had gone south so Paul had had to hop on a plane and fly, ironically, northward to deal with whatever crisis had blown up. Gary had considered it highly inappropriate for Paul to leave home at a time like this, but decided not to mention that faux pas by Paul, the bloody father, damnit!
They used Mary's iPad to Google search funeral homes, florists, churches and the like. Mary took the lead in making the painful but necessary decisions. Eventually, Gary would realize that it was as if Mary had already done this research before. But why? And who with?
They were assisted by the fact that Sandra had left copious notes and instructions as a codicil to her will. Her will? Gary shook his head, realizing that the instructions would be very helpful. Later, looking back through the lens of 20/20 hindsight, he developed a level of awareness that did not sit well with him.
Eventually when the research was done, Julieta returned to the kitchen with the sleeping baby. Julieta smiled, saying, "She's asleep, now."
Mary praised her, saying, "You are so good with her, Julieta. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you."
Gary looked at his daughter, and said, "When will you be coming home, Julieta, now I'm back from the hospital?"
She frowned, glanced nervously at Mary before she spoke. "Daddy, if it's okay with you, I'd love to stay here and help Mary look after the baby?"
Damn! He hadn't seen that one coming! "I... see, but that would mean I'll be alone at home." His voice wound down as he realized how pathetic he was sounding.
He cleared his throat before speaking as he knew there was a risk of his voice breaking at an inopportune moment. "Actually, that's perfectly fine Julieta. After all, with Sandra gone I guess I'll have to get used to being alone, won't I?"
